


Wind's Whistle

by TheCookieMonster77



Series: Incomplete Melodies [3]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Angst, Drama, Family, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-09
Updated: 2014-11-09
Packaged: 2018-02-24 17:09:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2589542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCookieMonster77/pseuds/TheCookieMonster77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was just doing what she had always been taught to do: whistle when lost. So why was everyone telling her to stop?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wind's Whistle

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

Carla is the first to notice. She keeps quiet for a bit, not wanting to upset the little human she cares for so much. But, eventually, she can't stand the irritating noise and her ears are twitching so violently she thinks she's going to pull a muscle soon.

"For heaven's sake!" she bursts, sharply turning on her heel to glare back at Wendy who was trailing behind her. She puts her hands on her hips and scowls. "If you're going to whistle, whistle a complete song!"

Wendy blushes and nervously taps her fingers together. "Ah, sorry Carla. It's the only one I know."

Carla's eye twitches violently and she summons all of her patience to deal with her small human. "Then go learn something else or don't whistle!"

Wendy ducks her head and hides behind her bangs. "Sorry."

Carla nods in satisfaction and is about to turn back front until she sees a small tear run down Wendy's cheek. Guilt instantly washes over her and she nearly smacks her forehead in annoyance. She's so going to regret this. "No Wendy, it's my fault. That tune's just been stuck in my head for a while and it's driving me mad. Do you think you could learn some others and change it up a bit?"

Wendy's head snaps up and she beams at Carla. "Of course Carla! Let's hurry back to the guild and I'll ask Master Roubaul right away." Wendy stoops a bit to pick up Carla and she starts running as soon as Carla's comfortable.

Carla sighs discreetly, relieved Wendy didn't notice her minor fib. She can't quite feel guilty for it though because soon she'll be rid of the blasted thing. Really, Wendy's not going to keep whistling  _that_  once she learns actual songs.

But, even though Wendy learns new songs and never stops whistling, she keeps falling into that same odd, irregular whistle that grates on Carla's nerves to no end. But, Wendy always wears such a happy smile when she does and Carla can't bring herself to stop the young girl, even if she's about to rip her ears off.

Oh, the things she does for her little human.

* * *

Master Roubaul is the next to notice (though it's not much of a stretch, seeing how he's the one teaching her songs). He agrees with Carla on how the piercing and choppy tune is irritating and makes him want to scratch his ears off but, Wendy's happy when she whistles that irritating noise so he can't tell her to stop. Heavens knows why she insists on it. But really, it's not like he understands what young people do nowadays.

And if he may bombard Wendy with different songs daily in hopes one of them will catch, well, she doesn't notice so he sees no reason to stop. Even though she never drops the odd tune, she does stop whistling it as often as she first did so Master Roubaul will just count that as success.

* * *

Erza notices it on the way back to Fairy Tail but, doesn't comment at first. She plays Wendy's quirky whistle over in her head a few times and decides she likes the odd, choppy and yet catchy tune. She walks slightly faster and gently taps the nervous girl's shoulder.

"Hey Wendy," she says with a hopefully reassuring smile. "I like that song. What's it called?"

The diminutive bluenette furtively glances up at her and quickly looks back at her feet. She starts to twirl her fingers a bit. "Um, what song Ms. Erza?"

Erza bites her lip, unsure of how to ease Wendy's nerves. She forgets to answer the question until Wendy hesitantly peeks up from under her bangs. Erza gives her a sheepish smile and says, "That odd song you were just whistling. It's weird and not really something I normally like but, it's pretty catchy."

She doesn't know what to make of Wendy's confused look and slightly watery eyes. She doesn't know why Wendy peeks up at the sky before ducking her head and walking a little faster, just so that she's not walking alongside Erza. Erza hears Wendy sniffle (too quietly for anyone else to hear) and guilt flashes through her. She guesses the whistle must be a nervous tick that embarrasses Wendy because Wendy makes sure not whistle at all on the ride back to Fairy Tail and only cheers up after she gets her guild stamp. The guilt flashes through Erza once more so she grabs a strawberry cake for her and Wendy to split as an apology.

Unfortunately, she completely forgets about it when Elfman knocks the cake from her arms and runs away from his punishment.

* * *

Gajeel is the first to recognize it for what it really is. He's the first to notice the half-hearted glances up at the sky and the slightly lost look on her face when she whistles. The song's irritating, but he knows her whistle is important to her the same way his guitar song is to him.

He's also the first to tell her to whistle louder and harder because he knows how much it hurts to hope for the parent to return when everyone tells them to stop.

* * *

Natsu's next. He only catches bits and pieces of it during the train ride in between bouts of nausea but, once he gets off the train and his wits back around him (having been nicely placed on a bench to recover under Wendy's attentions), he taps her on the shoulder while the others are off getting hotel rooms.

Wendy looks nervous, twiddling her figures and biting her lip. Natsu grins. "I bet it sounds even better when Grandeeney's singing along."

Wendy's lip wobbles and her eyes water slightly but, her smile is still a happy one and her fingers grip the bench as she leans toward him. "Not singing silly. Roaring."

Natsu gives an exaggerated roll of his eyes, his smile growing wider when she giggles. They don't say anything else, just her whistling her choppy tune into the rushing wind and him tapping his nonsensical sequence on the rusty bench. Just two lost kids waiting for their family to come collect them.

Neither songs are complete but, both sound a little less broken.

* * *

Happy's been sleeping over at Wendy's place more often. He knows Carla's finally warming up to him, no matter how she furiously denies it. He almost always hears Wendy's whistle as she bustles around the small apartment but, it doesn't bother him so he ignores it.

However, even if he doesn't mind it, he still backs Carla up when she tells Wendy to shut up. Okay, maybe she was nicer in her wording but, that's still the basic gist of it. Plus, Carla nodded at him approvingly (which rarely happens) so Happy pushes it to the back of his head and determinedly sets off to completely win Carla's heart.

But, when he hears quiet sniffles coming from Wendy in the night, he wonders if Carla's approval was really worth it.

* * *

Wendy's going to wake Carla soon but, she just can't stop crying. The nightmares are especially bad tonight and it's just like that horrible morning when she woke up panicked to find Grandeeney missing. Vanished. Kaput. Just gone, gone,  _gone_.

Wendy stuffs her face into her pillow as she chokes on her sobs, squeezing the pillow as tightly as possible. She wishes there was someone to go to but, no one was there and she was so  _alone_. Wendy fights back the sobs and tries to whistle, just like Grandeeney told her to do if she were ever lost or lonely. But, the whistle sounds more broken than ever when Grandeeney's part are never filled and hers keep getting cut off with sobs and it just  _hurts_  so much.

She slowly calms down, the sobs fading into the normal aching  _pit_  in her chest and she's finally able to whistle. It's a painful balm but, at least it's not the breath-stealing, mind-numbing, chest-compressing hopelessness she felt when she had woken up  _abandoned_  or when the nightmares come to haunt her. At least the whistle makes her feel like Grandeeney will come soon.

"Wendy, it's the middle of the night! Do you  _have_  to whistle that god-forsaken song?"

Wendy peeks up to see Carla standing on the edge of her bed and glaring down at her. For a moment, Wendy almost hates Carla because no matter how much she loves the brusque exceed she just wants some comfort right now and Carla's disdain isn't helping. Wendy feels her lower lip tremble and something bursts inside her, the dam breaking and everything hitting her at once. She wails and chokes and screams and sobs because even if she puts a brave face on during the day, it's night and Grandeeney has yet to come back and she's so  _small_  and  _alone_.

Carla's there, frantically murmuring apologies, wiping tears, and hugging tightly all while begging her not to feel sad. But, it's not something Wendy can control, even if holding Carla tight helps hold back some of the loneliness.

But, even if Carla tries to fix the broken bond and Wendy loves her for it, the bond doesn't  _need_  fixing because it's not broken, just one half is missing. And Wendy cries for the loss because she wants  _Mommy_  right now and no one's there to engulf her into their arms like Grandeeney did.

No. Wendy needs to be a big, strong girl for Fairy Tail, the wonderful family who took her in. But for now, she is a little orphan girl waiting, always waiting, for her mommy to come back and take her home. And since there's no one to be seen on the horizon, she'll have to dash her tears and be a big girl once more.

So she squeezes Carla tighter and starts to whistle.

* * *

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**Author's Note:**

> Well...that ended up darker than I thought it would be. Am I the only one who thinks the manga should go deeper into how the dragon slayers felt when their parents abandoned them?


End file.
